Understanding
engineers, customers and the bottom line, Darryl Davis has
successfully guided Boeing
through a dynamic J-UCAS program

BY MARIBETH BRUNO

When the U.S. Department of Defense awarded additional
funding for Boeing's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System X-45 project in October,
Darryl Davis found himself suddenly in charge of a $1.5 billion program instead
of an $850 million one. Luckily, Davis is accustomed to change.

In his 25 years
with Boeing, the Integrated Defense Systems vice president and X-45 program
manager has been, among other things, a McDonnell Douglas propulsion
engineer, a Brookings
Institution Congressional Fellow working in the office of Sen. Arlen Specter,
and vice president of Business Development for Military Aircraft and Missile
Systems.

It's hard to imagine a resume that could have better prepared him for what the
X-45 program has gone through since he joined the effort in April 2002.

In October
2002, the St. Louis-based Phantom Works program, then known as Unmanned Combat
Air Vehicle, with Davis as its new manager, had two X-45A aircraft in flight
testing
and would soon begin construction on a larger X-45B. Then,
Davis said, "The world began to change underneath our feet."

The Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) asked Boeing to modify the X-45B design to
meet the U.S. Air
Force customer's need for greater range and loitering capability. The company
also was asked to incorporate U.S. Navy objectives.
Davis' team produced some studies. Then the real work began.

DARRYL DAVIS AT A GLANCE

Current position:
J-UCAS X-45
vice president and program manager, Integrated Defense Systems.

Experience:
Joined
McDonnell Douglas in 1979 as an associate engineer. Went on to
hold positions of increasing responsibility at McDonnell
Douglas and Boeing, including business development positions for
F/A-18 and Military Aircraft and Missile Systems, and program manager
positions on Advanced Strike Weapons Systems and AV-8B. Also served
as capture team leader on Joint Strike Fighter.

"From early December
through early March of 2003," Davis
said, "we went from separate Air Force/Navy programs to a joint X-45C program
that included a Navy variant." This while flying the X-45As, which are still
being tested, and building the canceled X-45B in accordance with the original
contract.

That's not the only full-speed change
of direction Davis has steered. In January of this year, the
program, now known as J-UCAS, transitioned
from Phantom Works
to IDS. A few months later, DARPA introduced a new program vision: a common
operating system to be developed by Boeing, Northrop Grumman and the
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.

As with prior changes, the X-45 team
is determined to make
this one a success.

"You have to say, 'OK, this is what we're going to do for now,' and go off and
do it," Davis said. "Part of the strength of the team has been its ability
to adapt to a changing environment."

MAINTAINING FOCUS

Outlining the program's history, Davis frequently commended his 650 team members
across the country for their creativity and flexibility. But program observers
said Davis deserves credit
for keeping the team'sand the customers'eyes on the prize.

>> "In a program as dynamic as this, IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT MANAGING,
IT'S ABOUT LEADING. The
people have to support what you're doing, have to see the future and payoff in
what you're doing."

>> "When we have to get together and make a hard decision, we bring
in
the direct reports. I'll sit
down with them, we'll talk
about the situation, and in
the end we don't vote on it, but I do give everyone the opportunity to voice
their opinions and their
thoughts, and WE'LL MAKE
THE HARD DECISION AND
GET ON WITH LIFE."

>> "People ask me if I came out [of his Brookings Institution Congressional
Fellowship] more cynical. I actually came out of there more positive
than I had been. The members do their best, because they have constituencies,
they have customers. IT'S ALL ABOUT MAKING YOUR CUSTOMERS HAPPY AND
HAVING A TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP with them so they believe what you
tell them."

>> "We have a 5-year-old, and
that pretty much is my hobby. The good news is I don't do any e-mail
at home; the bad news
is I don't do any e-mail at home. But you can't be just a workaholicand
in
my career I've been that, too. YOU HAVE TO FIND
A
BALANCE BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE
WORK."

>> "In 2007 we'll take to the sky for the first time with the first
generation of unmanned combat air systems and start to show the world
how great and
magnificent these
systems can be. But
they're not a replacement for manned airplanes. OUR
JOB IS TO MAKE THEM MORE
EFFICIENT
AND EFFECTIVE TO
GO DO THE DULL,
DIRTY, DANGEROUS
THINGS."

"There are very
few leaders who can move a team through
so much change and keep it intact," said Rod Lekey, manager of Business Development
for J-UCAS at Air Force Systems. "He's great at communicating with the customer
as well."

Craig Bernhard, IDS manager of Joint Capabilities
Assessment, said Davis' 10 years in Washington, D.C., have had lasting
benefits: "He understands the decision process, which can be very political
and fiscally constrained, and at the same time
he has the ability to run a program.

"He is one of the best guys you want to
bring in to your customer," Bernhard continued, "not only because he knows what
he's talking about, but he knows how to listen. He's very interested in the
overall picture, so he can frame his program within that. He realizes his
product is
part of an overall architecture."

Davis said it was "enlightening" to work with
business developers
in Boeing's Washington, D.C., office and to watch the congressional authorization
and appropriation process during his 1993 congressional fellowship. A legislative
assistant in
Specter's office, Davis once briefed the senator before a vote, but avoided
anything that would be a conflict of interest with his employment at McDonnell
Douglas.

George Roman, Boeing vice president and chief
of staff of Washington, D.C., Operations, also took part in the fellowship
program. "It's a finishing school for executives," he said. "The majority of
staffers on Capitol Hill are really young. But they have amazing authority and
responsibility. We wound up with
the authority you'd have at Boeing as a director or VP."

That may explain one
aspect of Davis' reputation. "He's awfully
tough," Roman said. "He's demanding and makes people stretch. But he does it
in a way that they know he cares about them. When they see the success they achieve,
they know they wouldn't have
gotten there without that guidance."

Davis credits his team. "You plot the course,
you show the
people the direction to go. When people own the decisions, it's amazing what
they can do."